Saturday, January 30, 2016

Following JTS Gr. A and PS Gr. B
Officers are retiring from Govt. Service on superannuation on 31/1/2016

Sl. No.

Name of Officer

Designation

Circle

1

Shri A. Kuppsamy

Chief PM, Chennai GPO, Chennai

Tamil Nadu

2

Shr M. Bakthavatsalam

SSP, Virudunagar Division

Tanil Nadu

3

Shri Chhotey Lal

Supdt., PSF, Aligarh

Uttar Pradesh

4

Shri Jagannath Baith

SSP, Gaya division, Gaya

Bihar

5

Shri Suresh Chandra

Odisha

6

Shri Hanuman Visen

SP, Bahraich division

Utta Pradesh

7

Shri Interjit Singh

AD (Inv/Estt) o/o CPMG, Chandigarh

Punjab

8

Arjun Jha

AD (Legal) o/o CPMG, Patna

Bihar

9

Shri V. G. Vaghela

ASP (HQ) Bhavnagar Division

Gujarat

10

Shri V.Chandrasekaran

SP, Dharamapuri Division

Tamil Nadu

11

Shri Pramod Kumar Srivastava

SRM, Muzaffar Division, Muzaffar

Bihar

12

Shri Balram Mandal

SP, CSD, Patna

Bihar

13

Smt. Pushkala

ASP (HQ) Alappuzha Div (Vol.
Retirement on 1/2/2016)

Kerala

14

Shri V. P. Phirke

SP, Buldhana Division, Buldhana

Maharashtra

CHQ wishes them a very happy,
healthy and long retired life. In few circles, senior ASPs are working on
adhoc basis in PS Gr. B cadre and retiring without getting regular PS Gr. B
promotion, their names are not included in the list, the same may kindly be
reported to GS by SMS.

20 cities propose an investment of Rs.50,802 cr over five years; All cities to
resort to PPP

26,735 acres area in 20 cities identified for making them smart

The
Government today announced the 20 winners of the Smart City Challenge
competition for financing during this financial year. Announcing the cities
here today, Minister of Urban Development Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu said that the
winners were from 11 States and the Union Territory of Delhi and the selection
was totally objective and transparent based on standardized processes.

Shri Naidu further said that Smart City Mission marks a paradigm shift towards
urban development in the country since it is based on ‘bottom up’ approach with
the involvement of citizens in formulation of city vision and smart city plans
and the Urban Local Bodies and State Governments piloting the mission with
little say for the Ministry of Urban Development. He also observed that it was
for the first time in the country and even in the world that investments in
urban sector are being made based on competition based selection of cities.

Informing that 1.52 crore citizens participated in shaping smart city plans of
97 cities and towns in the first round of competition, Shri Naidu said that
this enthusiastic participation of people is a major positive outcome.

3 cities from Madhya Pradesh, two each from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil
Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan and one each from the remaining five
made it to the winning list.

The Minister informed that 23 States and UTs who could not make to the list of
winners will be given an opportunity to participate in a ‘fast track
competition’. Each top ranking city form these left out states can upgrade
their smart city proposals and submit them by April 15, this year for inclusion
in the mission.

Shri Naidu informed that the 20 winning cities and towns have proposed a total
investment of Rs.50,802 cr over five years with all the cities proposing
Public-Private-Partnership as a major vehicle of resource mobilization. 10 of
the 20 cities have proposed to mobilise Rs.8,521 cr under PPP model while
others have also indicated this option. A total area of 26,735 acres has been
identified by these cities for making them smart through necessary
interventions.

Elaborating on the advantages of Smart City Mission, Shri Venkaiah Naidu said
that this leads to integrated urban planning by addressing the issue of
infrastructure, land use planning, transport, urban design and architecture in
a holistic manner unlike in the past. Stating that building a smart city is not
a destination but a series of small steps in that direction, Shri Naidu said
that the country has taken one such step today.

The Minister said that urban local bodies are taking a quantum jump to improve
their capabilities and have resorted to SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats) analysis of each city for coming out with city
vision.

The 20 smart cities announced by Shri Venkaiah Naidu were :

Rank

City

State

1

Bhubaneswar

Odisha

2

Pune

Maharashtra

3

Jaipur

Rajasthan

4.

Surat

Gujarat

5

Kochi

Kerala

6

Ahmedabad

Gujarat

7

Jabalpur

Madhya Pradesh

8

Visakhapatnam

Andhra Pradesh

9

Solapur

Maharashtra

10

Davanagere

Karnataka

11

Indore

Madhya Pradesh

12

New Delhi Municipal Council

Delhi

13

Combattore

Tamil Nadu

14

Kakinada

Andhra Pradesh

15

Belagavi

Karnataka

16

Udaipur

Rajasthan

17

Guwahati

Assam

18

Chennai

Tamil Nadu

19

Ludhiana

Punjab

20

Bhopal

Madya Pradesh

Of these 20 cities accounting for a total population of 3.54 crore, 5
have population below 5 lakhs each, 4 in the range of 5-10 lakhs, 6 in
between 10-25 lakhs, 4 between 25 and 50 lakhs and only Ahmedabad has above 50
lakhs.

Digital India Initiative Would Further
Enable India Post to take E-Commerce to Every Indian

India Post Well Set to Bridge Rural-Urban Divide

Union
Minister for Communication and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad said today that NDA
Government’s initiative to digitalize functioning would help in making
e-commerce reach every corner. He said the initiative would further enhance
India posts reach as national carrier. The Minister also highlighted that the
Government’s ‘Digital India Project’ was working to bring the internet and
broadband to the remotest corners of the country giving further boost to the
growing e-commerce market. Department of Posts, with its largest postal network
in the world is the biggest potential partner to the e-commerce companies being
the only last mile logistics handler across the country.

Speaking at the meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to
the Ministry of Communications& IT, on the e-Commerce initiatives of the
Department of Posts, he said that various steps taken by the Department of
Posts for gearing up its capabilities for handling e-Commerce parcel business
as well as introducing services such as Cash on Delivery which have completely
revolutionized the e-commerce business in India. The Department had handled COD
value worth Rs. 500 crores up to March 2015 which has now crossed Rs. 1000
crores till December 2015 and is expected to reach around Rs. 1500 crores by
the end of the current financial year.

The Minister shared with the Committee that one of his prime agenda was to
bring about a change in the post office operations so that it can play a larger
role in providing accessibility of products and services to the door step of
each and every individual across the country. With the IT Modernization Project
in an advanced stage of implementation, Department of Posts is well set to
redefine its operations to tap the e-commerce industry. This is not only going
to further augment its revenue but it will also play a larger role in
connecting India more comprehensively by reaching out to the door step of the
consumers across the country, thereby bridging the Digital and urban rural
divide in terms of availability of products.

The Department had set up 48new Parcel Processing Centers so far and 9 more
such centers are coming up during the current financial year. These efforts in
the last eighteen months have resulted in an overall revenue growth in the parcel
segment by 45% during 2014-15 and more than 100% in the current financial year.
Similarly, Speed Post, the flagship product of the Department also has premium
parcel component which has registered a growth of 12.5% in the current
financial year as against 8.9% last year giving overall revenue of more than Rs
1100 crores to the Department in the current year so far. Business from major
e-commerce companies are growing. Amazon India booking has increased from
average 50,000 articles per month last year to 3 lakhs articles per month in
the current year and so is the case of other players like Flipkart, Myntra etc.
where the bookings have increased from 15,000 per month to 30,000-50,000 per
month.

The members of the Consultative Committee appreciated the steps taken by the
Department of Posts and complimented on its efforts to bring rural India into
the e-commerce mainstream as well as enhancing its revenues through parcel and
Speed Post business.

The meeting was attended by the Hon’ble Members of Parliament, Sh Nepal Singh,
Sh Raj Babbar, Sh Bhola Singh, Sh Arvind Ganpat Sawant, Smt Ranjanben Bhatt and
Sh K Gopal The Hon’ble Members suggested that the Post Offices should not only
enhance their visibility but should also become the rural centers for providing
computer and internet facilities to the youth. Similarly, the Post Shoppes’
opened by the Department should be expanded and they should also retail telecom
SIM and top-up cards.

Railway
Ministry
introduces new checks on booking of e-ticket/i-ticket through IRCTC
website with a view to further prevent possible misuse Under the new
provisions a maximum of 6 tickets can be booked online by an
individual user in a month on IRCTC website This new provision will come
into effect w.e.f. 15th February, 2015. The move aims to deter touts
and to facilitate genuine users

In
order to facilitate genuine users and prevent touting activities, various
checks have already been put in place for the booking of e-ticket/i-ticket on
IRCTC website including the following : -

1. Individuals
are allowed only 2 tickets per user-ID in a day (for ARP booking) from 08:00
hours to 10.00 hours.

2. Individuals
are allowed only 2 tickets per user-ID in a day (for Tatkal booking) from 10:00
hours to 12:00 hours.

3. A
maximum of 10 tickets can be booked online in a month by an individual.

4. Quick
Book Option is disabled from 08:00 to 12:00 hours

5. All
types of ticketing agents (YTSK, RTSA, IRCTC agents etc.) have been debarred
from booking tickets during the first thirty minutes of opening of booking i.e.
from 08:00 to 08:30 hours for general bookings, and from 10:00 to 10:30 hours
and 11:00 to 11:30 hours for Tatkal booking in AC and non-AC classes
respectively.

6. Booking
is not allowed through e-wallet and cash cards from 08:00 to 12:00 hours.

7. There
is only one booking in one user login session except for return/onward journey
between 08:00 to 12:00 hours.

To
further prevent any possible misuse, Ministry of Railways has now decided that
effective from 15th February, 2016, a maximum of 6 tickets can be booked
online by an individual user in a month on IRCTC website. This will
replace the existing system under which a maximum of 10 tickets can be booked
online through IRCTC website in a month by an individual. However, the existing
condition will continue wherein these booking will be subject to a limit of
booking 2 opening Tatkal tickets in 10:00- 12:00 hours period in a day and 2
opening Advance Reservation Period (ARP) tickets in 08:00-10:00 hours period in
a day.

This
has been done keeping in view the analysis of usage of quota of 10 tickets
which indicated that 90% of users are booking upto 6 tickets in a given month
and only 10% are making more than 6 tickets. It is suspected that the 10% users
might be involved in touting activities. Therefore to deter such touts and to
facilitate genuine users, it has been decided that a maximum of 6 tickets can
be booked by an individual user in a month.

Great
news for all the government jobs aspirants as Indian Postal Circle is going to
announce one of the biggest employment notifications very soon. The recruitment
will be organized for selection of eligible staff for Postal Assistant and
Sorting Assistant posts on its official site www.indiapost.gov.in. Now all
those qualified candidates are invited for 20000 upcoming job opening whose
link will be soon available at their official site. This notification will
bring good news for those entire aspirants who were looking for government
jobs, 10th pass government jobs, 12th pass government jobs, post office jobs
etc.

According to report, India post is going to hire candidates for Postal
Assistant and Sorting Assistant posts, Stenographers, Postman and Mail Guard,
MTS, Postmaster Cadres, Hindi Typist, Inspector, Director Posts, etc. Aspirant
must have completed their Matriculation or Intermediate from recognized board
and diploma/ graduation/ bachelors or its equivalent in required discipline
from recognized university or institute. The online application process will
start from February 2016 and will going to end on March 2016.

India Post operates postal system in India. It was founded during British
Empire i.e. 01st April, 1774 and operated under Ministry of Communication and
Information Technology, Govt of India. But, on 31st March 2011 it was
officially declared as the Indian Postal Service and currently has more than
154,866 post offices which are located across India. Main headquarter of post
office is located in Sansad Marg, New Delhi.

India post is popular among candidates for providing various services such as Letter
post, parcel service, EMS, deposit account, third-party logistics freight
forwarding, delivery etc. India post is divided into 22 postal circles which is
independently headed by chief postmaster general. Currently more than 4, 70,000
employees are working with Indian postal circle. India Post’s main objective is
to provide all type of courier service at low cost than other private firm. For
the date of official announcement keep going through their official website
daily and stay tuned with us for more news related to latest government job
vacancy.

The Public Investment Board (PIB)
today discussed the Rs 800-crore proposal from the India Post for setting up a
payments bank and the final approval on the same is expected in the next
meeting.

"The proposal was discussed in
the meeting today but no decision has been taken yet. Another meeting is likely
in a week," a official in the postal department told PTI.After the board approval, the
proposal will be moved to the Cabinet within a month. The PIB under the Finance
Ministry vets investment proposals by state-run entities.The pilot for payments bank is set
to start from January 2017 and the full-fledged operations may start by
March.

The department is likely to finalise
the consultant for its payments bank by the end of this month. It had
shortlisted six consultants but only three of them submitted their bids.The consultant will advise the India
Post on setting up of payments bank.As many as 40 international
financial conglomerates including World Bank and Barclays have shown interest
to partner the postal department for setting up the bank.

The Reserve Bank has granted
payments bank permit to the department, which is already into providing
financial services and has 1.55 lakh branches across the country.As per the RBI guidelines, a
payments bank can offer limited services such as demand deposits and
remittances.They will not be allowed to
undertake lending activities and will initially be restricted to holding a
maximum balance of Rs 1 lakh per individual customer.They will be allowed to issue ATM or
debit cards as other prepaid payment instruments but not credit cards.

The
announcement of a deferral is expected to be part of Jaitley's Budget speech on
February 29.With
a massive financial resource crunch estimated for 2016-17, the government is
planning to defer the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission award.Last
week, the Union Cabinet approved the formation of an empowered committee of
secretaries to work out ways for staggering the award through more than one
financial year, instead of letting the Rs 1,02,100-crore bill from the
implementation of the award come up at one go.

A
top-ranked official said one of the options for the empowered committee was to
defer the increase in allowances for central government employees, while
letting the rise in pay for all scales to go through. According to finance
ministry figures, the ratio of allowances to pay for these 4.7 million
employees is 1:1.4. For instance, the Budget estimates in 2015-16 pegged the
salary bill for all central government employees at Rs 60,731 crore, whereas
the tab for allowances is Rs 84,437.4 crore.The step would allow Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley to keep the Budget numbers for this financial year and
the next close to the targeted 3.9 per cent and 3.5 per cent of gross domestic
product (GDP) that he has committed himself to. For instance, even if the
annual expenditure for 2016-17 were kept at about Rs 18 lakh crore (almost
unchanged from Rs 17,77,477 crore in 2015-16), the Pay Commission
recommendations would add another 5.5 per cent to it.

Given
the sluggish pace of GDP growth and the almost negative deflator, the aggregate
Budget numbers would otherwise be impossible to sustain on the back of the
current trend in growth of tax receipts - just 50 per cent of the Budget
estimates after the first eight months of the year, according to Controller
General of Accounts data. The assumptions being worked on in North Block are
that these might not change dramatically in the next financial year, too.

The
announcement of a deferral is expected to be part of Jaitley's Budget speech on
February 29. The formation of an empowered committee for the pay panel
recommendations, again a first for the central government, is meant to bring
all stakeholders on board in the exercise.The
official explained ministry-wise consultations with the department of expenditure
in the finance ministry, in the run up to the Budget, were mostly over. Those
discussions had proceeded on the assumptions that the Pay Commission
recommendations would be implemented. It was now necessary to bring the
secretaries of key departments on board about the need for a drastic cut-back
on those estimates.

The
status quo on allowances would also allow the government to ignore the demand
made by various staff associations to raise the minimum level of salary for
employees. The Pay Commission has suggested that the minimum should be Rs
18,000 per month; the unions have demanded that it should be raised to a band
of Rs 19,000 to Rs 21,000 a month. Such a change would have created a ripple
effect. About 70 per cent of the government employees are bunched in the
non-executive ranks; the starting salary for them tops about Rs 42,000 a month,
show calculations by the Commission. Even a modest increase in pay for them
would cascade the bill for the government by another Rs 50,000 crore annually.
The award of the Commission is slated to take effect from January 1 this year.

A
key element in the plan to defer some elements of the 7th Pay Commission
recommendations will be the railway ministry. Government managers reckon the
powerful unions of the Indian Railways need to be brought on board for this
plan to be successful. The higher wage bill for the Suresh Prabhu-led ministry
works out to Rs 28,450 crore a year, only a shade less than the yearly loss it
makes on its passenger services at present. No formal communications have been
sent out to the railway unions by the committee. "It will follow once the
empowered committee has decided to take a call on which allowances to
clip," said the official.In
a recent television interview, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha had
said the Pay Commission recommendations were the biggest headache for his
ministry, struggling to keep the aggregate expenditure of the Union government
under control.

As
a pilot phase Department of Post has started using solar powered, biometric
hand-held devices in rural post office with connectivity along with the
application software in selected circles viz. Bihar, UP and Rajasthan.
This move was the outcome of Rural ICT project declared by the Government of
India.

Following re the important features or benefits of Hand-held device supplied to
Branch Post Offices.

1.
Electronic transactions- Booking and delivery of Speed Post, registered mail,
money orders, sale of stamps and postal stationery will be done through these
devices and paper receipt shall be generated

2.
Instantaneously thereby eliminating chances of overcharging and other problems
associated with manual transactions. Savings Bank deposits & withdrawals,
PLI/RPLI premium deposits and loan/claim payments will also be done
electronically on these devices.

3.
Immediate uploading of transaction data and financial reconciliation- Using
mobile connectivity, data pertaining to all transactions done on the hand-held
devices shall be uploaded onto the central server. E-Money order will reach the
destination post office instantaneously unlike present day where the money
order is digitized at the nearest computerized Post Office and leads to delay
in delivery. All financial transactions shall also be reconciled immediately
without any manual intervention and Cash on Delivery amount collected in the
village shall be immediately credited to the account of e-Commerce Company.
Similarly the artisans would be able to fulfill e-commerce orders and receive
immediate payment for their sold products online. This will have a positive
impact on the overall economy of the villages.

4.
Automatic track and trace- Speed Post and Registered letters/parcels and money
remittances will be trackable at the Branch Post Office level and
booking/delivery information will also be uploaded to central server
immediately.

5.
Fraud and leakage elimination- As Savings Bank and Postal Life Insurance
transactions will be done on a real-time basis and through immediate generation
of receipt and voice message, chances of fraud would be eliminated. Biometric
authentication of MNREGS and social security beneficiaries at the time of
pay-out would also reduce leakage in the schemes

6.
Post Offices as Common Service Centres- Branch Post Offices shall be able to
work as Common Service Centres and offer services such as Railway Reservation,
online bill payment for electricity and water utilities, mobile and DTH
recharge, insurance policy premium payments & transactions for partner
banks/insurance companies/mutual funds etc.

Monday, January 18, 2016

As per the Finance Act, 2015, income-tax is required to be deducted
under Section 192 of the Act from income chargeable under the head “Salaries”
for the financial year 2015-16 (i.e. Assessment Year 2016-17) at the following
rates:

Rates of tax : A. Normal Rates of tax:

Rates of tax for every individual, resident in India, who is of the age of
sixty years or more but less than eighty years at any time during the financial
year:

In case of every individual being a resident in India, who is of the age of
eighty years or more at any time during the financial year:

Education Cess on Income tax:

The amount of income-tax including
the surcharge if any, shall be increased by Education Cess on Income Tax at the
rate of two percent of the income-tax.

Secondary and Higher Education Cess on Income-tax:

An additional education cess is chargeable at the rate of one percent of
income-tax including the surcharge if any, but not including the Education Cess
on income tax.

Latest
on Pension 33 years or 20 years - Information on Implementation order in M.O.
Inasu case

Online
RTI Status Form

Registration
Number: DP&PW/A/2015/60046

Name:
S. Y. Savur

Date
of Filing: 20/12/2015

Request
filed with Department of Pensions & Pensioners Welfare

Status
APPEAL DISPOSED OF as on 12/01/2016

Reply
:- Dear Sir

Under
the RTI Act the CPIO is required to provide only the information which is
available with him/her in the material form. The order of Hon'ble CAT in O. A.
No.715/2012 had been implemented in respect of the petitioners in that O.A.
even before the dismissal of the Review Petition by Hon'ble Supreme
Court.

The
question of implementation of the orders in respect of Pre-2006 pensioners has
been under consideration in consultation with the concerned Ministries/
Departments i.e. Ministry of Law, Department of Legal Affairs and Ministry of
Finance, Department of Expenditure and the file has been referred to Department
of Legal Affairs on 30.12.2015.

Thus
the information given by the CPIO was correct.

In
case you are not satisfied with this order, you may appeal against the decision
to the Central Information Commission within 90 days, as per the RTI Act.